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In reply to the discussion: Second Amendment Scoreboard [View all]Uncle Joe
(65,150 posts)19. For all practical reasons "Laws of Nature and Nature's God"
can mean evolution decades before Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution came to light.
"Supreme Judge of the World" is calling to a higher morality and let history be the judge.
"Divine Providence" can mean the best aspects of human nature.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/divine?s=t
12. the Divine.
a. God.
b. ( sometimes lowercase ) the spiritual aspect of humans; the group of attributes and qualities of humankind regarded as godly or godlike.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/providence?s=t
prov·i·dence/ˈprɒvɪdəns/ Show Spelled [prov-i-duhns] Show IPA
noun
1. ( often initial capital letter ) the foreseeing care and guidance of God or nature over the creatures of the earth.
Again this pertains to evolution pre-Darwin.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
The primary thrust of the document is that being the right of the people, not the clergy, not the king nor dictator in determining their own course.
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I don't think Uncle Joe, or the cartoonist, sees the US Presidency as a seat of tyranny.
Aristus
May 2014
#3
Gun ownership rates have been dropping since the 70s with more guns concentrated in to fewer hands.
Uncle Joe
May 2014
#61
If 80,000,000 gun supporters object to this behavior, then all of you write to your
Aristus
May 2014
#112
Must not have gotten the memo that the 2nd amendment was only needed for protection from Tyrants.
dilby
May 2014
#4
Yes the South would've had personal weapons regardless because it was largely rural, agrarian
Uncle Joe
May 2014
#47
Glad to hear the right person in the right place, at the right time with a gun saved your life.
Fla Dem
May 2014
#12
Guns can save lives, just like not wearing a seat-belt can save lives...
devils chaplain
May 2014
#54
You would supplant a secular constitution with a document that appeals to a deistic god
AtheistCrusader
May 2014
#8
Preamble references " Laws of Nature and of Nature's God " and 'Creator' is capitalized for a reason
AtheistCrusader
May 2014
#14
You are attempting to interpret the historical writing of a deist in deistic language to mean
AtheistCrusader
May 2014
#20
I had been in the US for not more than an hour before some paranoid idiot
dickthegrouch
May 2014
#43
Of course I have the right, morally and legally, to take a life, in defense of my own or another's.
X_Digger
May 2014
#55
Using the NRA's logic more guns = more self-defense capability = a safer nation but that doesn't
Uncle Joe
May 2014
#44
Not just demographics but the actual rate of gun ownership has been dropping as well.
Uncle Joe
May 2014
#59
No doubt some people will and are lying or witholding the truth, but that's nothing new
Uncle Joe
May 2014
#67
From your own post, apparently the Pew Research Center confirms the General Social Survey.
Uncle Joe
May 2014
#71
Very true, however the Gallup poll shows gun ownership at the same level it was ...
spin
May 2014
#84
About 50% use a method other then firearms but we don't blame the bridges or razors.
EX500rider
May 2014
#87
I understand the right to keep and bear arms and the government not being allowed to infringe but
Uncle Joe
May 2014
#83
That's a good answer establishing the basis of the Founders' reasoning but it seems to me
Uncle Joe
May 2014
#89